Relief for Patients with Neurological Problems

It's all in your head... and your nerves, spine and muscle

Many of us experience headache, back pain, dizziness and muscle weakness, or we may occasionally have trouble gathering our thoughts. But when these kinds of symptoms occur frequently or severely, it could be the sign of a more serious neurological problem or even a stroke: a potentially fatal or debilitating “brain attack” which causes oxygen to stop flowing to the brain.

Neurologists are specially trained physicians who treat the nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord and the neural elements that coordinate body functions.

New Neurology Practice in Lake Forest

Leading board-certified neurologists Charulatha Nagar, MD, Laura Goldstein, MD and Ian Katznelson, MD recently joined the staff of Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital as part of Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation with a new patient-centered neurology practice. The new practice will provide residents in our communities with comprehensive, highly specialized neurological expertise, including access to related subspecialists, neurosurgeons and clinical trials at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In addition to seeing patients, they will serve as instructors at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital’s aim is to build a neurology group that is able to provide both inpatient and outpatient treatment to those who are in need of immediate and more elective neurological care,” says Michael G. Ankin, MD, Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital’s chief medical officer. “We want patients who come to the hospital to have immediate access to physicians who are experts in any number of neurological conditions, from migraines and stroke to cognitive and memory disorders.”

All physicians are accepting new patients at their office on the Lake Forest campus:

The range of experience of Northwestern Lake Forest neurologists and their connection to Northwestern Memorial is a particularly strong benefit of the new practice. The complexity of the nervous system means that it is involved in hundreds of disorders, some of which resemble other conditions and overlap different areas of medicine.

Drs. Nagar, Goldstein and Katznelson will be able to draw from their own clinical interests and experience, as well as the full range of Northwestern Memorial specialists and research, to offer the best possible diagnosis and treatment. If needed, they can arrange for seamless referral to advanced surgical procedures.

“I’ve worked extensively with stroke and multiple sclerosis, and I have a special interest in headaches. They can be a recurrent nuisance like migraines, or a serious problem stemming from the brain. If we can rule out more serious problems, then we focus on treatments that reduce frequency of attacks or medicines that can alleviate symptoms once the headache has begun. We can also discuss lifestyle and dietary factors.

For many neurological problems, ‘it takes a village’—a range of interventions such as education, preventive care and rehabilitation. Our practice can ensure patients have access to all options.”

“Accurate diagnosis is the starting point of high quality medical care. With our experience in electrophysiology, our practice will be able to provide a high level of precision in the diagnosis of multiple neurological problems.

Our expertise in clinical neurophysiology is used in sleep studies to help in the diagnosis of sleep apnea and narcolepsy, in the EEG lab to help us manage seizures, and in the EMG lab to assist in the diagnosis of neuropathy, spine disorders and many neuromuscular diseases.”

“I love working with older patients, and I have a passion for improving their lives. Aging is natural, but what behavior and symptoms are the sign of a problem? There’s more research on dementia, and I like to be proactive in memory disorder evaluation, diagnosis and management. And years of clinical trials on multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, restless leg syndrome and neuropathy have yielded new medications that we can bring to patients.

Neurological disorders are usually chronic, and they take a toll on the spouse and children. I’m OK with having four or five people in the exam room—it means the patient is getting more support.”